Hello Everyone,

While I spend much of my time in my tower contemplating all things arcane and mystical I do, on occasion, venture out in the world. On a recent sojourn at the bookstore I came across a book that reminded of a time long ago, in a city far away.

The book I speak of is Thrawn by Timothy Zahn. This novel tells the origin of one of the greatest villains I had ever experienced in a book, Grand Admiral Thrawn.

We were first introduced to Grand Admiral Thrawn back in 1991 in Zahn’s novel Heir to the Empire. At the time it was published Heir to the Empire was the first officially licensed novel to expand the Star Wars storyline. It is set 5 years after the events of Return of the Jedi.

Having been far away during the events of the original Star Wars movies Grand Admiral Thrawn finds the Empire has been defeated. Rallying the remnants of the Imperial fleet he declares war on the New Republic which unfolds over the course of three books. Early on we learn Thrawn is unusual in that he isn’t human. He is a Chiss, a blue skinned, red eyed alien in the Imperial Navy. An alien rising to such a rank was unheard of and had readers guessing at how Thrawn had managed it.

In Thrawn the titular character’s origin is finally revealed. This review will be spoiler free as the book only recently came out and was #2 on the New York Times Best Seller List. I don’t want to give away details to those that might be reading the book now.

You need not have read the original Zahn novels (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, or Last Command) to enjoy Thrawn. The book is a stand alone story in a single novel. It is a fast paced book that takes you on a wild ride of political intrigue and war.

The book focues on the exploits of Thrawn and his assigned aide/translator Eli Vanto. The two characters at first appear to be an unlikely team but Zahn weaves an intriguing and personal story to connect the two protagonists.

Thrawn and Eli both face an Imperial Navy that does not welcome or accept them, regardless of their successes. In fact the more successful Thrawn is the greater the opposition becomes.

Into this series of events Arihnda Pryce is introduced. The inexperienced administrator has her own agenda and soon finds herself crossing paths with Thrawn. Their goals may be different but these two characters are destined to be irrevocably connected.

While I highly recommend Thrawn to any Star Wars fan or fan of science fiction in general there is one aspect of the book that I did not like. Large sections of time are fast forwarded. The novel will start a story arc, build suspense, and then fast forward to the end. This most likely has more to do with the publisher than the author. Thrawn could have easily been expanded into a trilogy where more details could be provided allowing the reader to experience more of the story. The publisher, it appears, wanted a single book so Zahn had to work with the space available to him. This is a minor criticism and I would still highly recommend the book.

Since Heir to the Empire was published the market has been inundated with Star Wars novels. I have read many of those and I would rank Thrawn as a person favorite. I may be biased having experienced the thrill of Zahn’s original triology but, in my opinion, Thrawn is a great novel. The battles are intense, the characters are intriguing, and events take you from the Emperor’s palace to remote mining towns to the bridge of a Star Destroyer. Timothy Zahn delivers the epic thrills we expect in a Star Wars story. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and hope you do too.

I welcome your opinions of the book so feel free to comment.

May the 4th be with you,
Greytome